"The lyrics of ""The Elements"" are a recitation of the names of all the chemical elements that were known at the time of writing, up to number 102, nobelium. It can be found on his albums ""Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer"" as well as ""An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer"". The song is sung to the tune of Sir Arthur Sullivan's ""Major General's Song"" (""I am the very model of a modern major-general..."") from ""The Pirates of Penzance"". Since that time, 16 more have been discovered. At his concert in Copenhagen (1967), Lehrer admitted, ""I like to play"
"The Elements (song) ""The Elements"" is a song by musical humorist and lecturer Tom Lehrer, which recites the names of all the chemical elements known at the time of writing, up to number 102, nobelium. It was written in 1959 and can be found on his albums ""Tom Lehrer in Concert"", ""More of Tom Lehrer"" and ""An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer"". The song is sung to the tune of the Major-General's Song from ""The Pirates of Penzance"" by Gilbert and Sullivan. The song is also included in the musical revue ""Tom Foolery"", along with many of Lehrer's other songs."
"Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is a retired American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. Lehrer’s work often parodied popular song forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so. A notable exception is ""The Elements"", where he set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the ""Major-General's Song"" from Gilbert and Sullivan's ""Pirates of Penzance"". Lehrer's early work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted"
"Danes's daughter April and her classmates sing the song on the bus. Daniel Radcliffe sang ""The Elements"" on ""The Graham Norton Show"" in 2010. The Jewish parody group Shlock Rock acknowledges Lehrer and ""The Elements"" as inspiration for ""The Shabbat Song"". David Costabile, as Gale, sang along to the song in ""Something Beautiful"", a season 4 episode of ""Better Call Saul"" (2018). Cover recordings include Jesse Dangerously on his album ""How to Express Your Dissenting Political Viewpoint Through Origami"", where the song is titled ""Tom Lehrer's The Elements"". The Elements (song) ""The Elements"" is a song by musical humorist and"
"two papers: Lehrer was mainly influenced by musical theater. According to Gerald Nachman's book ""Seriously Funny"", the Broadway musical ""Let's Face It!"" (by Cole Porter) made an early and lasting impression on him. Lehrer's style consists of parodying various forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to write ""The Elements"", which lists the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's ""Major-General's Song"". In author Isaac Asimov's second autobiographical volume ""In Joy Still Felt"", Asimov recounted seeing Lehrer perform in a Boston nightclub on October 9, 1954. Lehrer sang cleverly about Jim getting"
"Lehrer's Second Song Book"", is out of print, . Lehrer wrote ""The SAC Song"", which was sung in the 1963 film ""A Gathering of Eagles"". Tom Lehrer Thomas Andrew Lehrer (; born April 9, 1928) is a retired American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. Lehrer’s work often parodied popular song forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so. A notable exception is ""The Elements"", where he set the names of the chemical elements to"
"The ordering of elements in the lyrics fits the meter of the song, and includes much alliteration, and thus has little or no relation to the ordering in the periodic table. This can be seen for example in the opening and closing lines: <poem> Lehrer was a Harvard Mathematics lecturer, and the final rhyme of ""Harvard"" and ""discovered"" is delivered in a parody of a Boston accent—a non-rhotic manner—so that the two words rhyme. Lehrer did not normally speak with that accent. Lehrer accompanied himself on the piano while singing the song. Lehrer drew the inspiration for ""The Elements"" from"
"Carolyn Williams has noted, however: ""The influence of Gilbert and Sullivan – their wit and sense of irony, the send ups of politics and contemporary culture – goes beyond musical theater to comedy in general. Allusions to their work have made their way into our own popular culture"". Gilbert and Sullivan expert and enthusiast Ian Bradley agrees: The works of Gilbert and Sullivan are themselves frequently pastiched and parodied. Well known examples of this include Tom Lehrer's ""The Elements"" and ""Clementine""; Allan Sherman's ""I'm Called Little Butterball"", ""When I Was a Lad"", ""You Need an Analyst"" and ""The Bronx Bird-Watcher"";"
"Poobah"" has been used on the television shows, including ""The Flintstones"" and ""Happy Days"" as the title of a high-ranking official in a men's club, spoofing clubs like the Freemasons, the Shriners, and the Elks Club. The works of Gilbert and Sullivan, filled as they are with parodies of their contemporary culture, are themselves frequently parodied or pastiched. A notable example of this is Tom Lehrer's ""The Elements"", which consists of Lehrer's rhyming rendition of the names of all the chemical elements set to the music of the ""Major-General's Song"" from ""Pirates"". Lehrer also includes a verse parodying a G&S"
"a rock-oriented public"". Of the available commercial videos, the ""Discography"" site considers the Brent Walker better than the Papp version. More recent professional productions have been recorded on video by the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival. Selected recordings ""Pirates"" is one of the most frequently referenced works of Gilbert and Sullivan. The Major-General's Song, in particular, is frequently parodied, pastiched and used in advertising. Parody versions have been used in political commentary as well as entertainment media. Its challenging patter has proved interesting to comedians; notable examples include Tom Lehrer's song ""The Elements"" and David Hyde Pierce's monologue, as host"
"by a quote from Franz Schubert's ""The Erl-King"" and also parodies the opera ""Il Trovatore"". Jacobs notes that Sullivan also adds his own humorous touches to the music by setting commonplace expressions in ""Donizettian recitative"". But on the serious side, he enhances the moments of true emotional climax, as in Josephine's Act II aria, and added musical interest to concerted numbers by ""subtly shifting the rhythms and bar groupings."" During rehearsals for the original production, Gilbert added a ballad for Captain Corcoran in which he urged his daughter to forget the common sailor with whom she is in love, because"
"from Gilbert and Sullivan tunes set to different words, such as Tom Lehrer's listing of the chemical elements to the tune of the Major General's Song, later patter songs can be found in early twentieth-century operettas, such as Edward German's ""Merrie England"" and in a number of musicals. Later examples include ""Tchaikovsky (and Other Russians)"" in Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill's ""Lady in the Dark"" and ""Getting Married Today"" in Stephen Sondheim's ""Company"". Another of many examples from musical theatre is Professor Harold Hill's song in ""The Music Man"", ""Ya Got Trouble"". Patter song The patter song is characterised by"
"Sullivan and Gilbert Sullivan and Gilbert is a jukebox musical by Ken Ludwig with music and lyrics by Gilbert and Sullivan. ""Sullivan and Gilbert"" features over 15 Gilbert and Sullivan songs. It examines a fictional day in 1890 when the Victorian era composer and dramatist, while embroiled in their 1890 ""carpet quarrel"", are requested by Queen Victoria to present a revue of songs from their operas on short notice. The musical premiered in 1983 in Milford, New Hampshire, and it has been revived several times in various places in North America. ""Sullivan and Gilbert"" premiered in 1983 in Milford, New"
"quo. Stedman calls this a ""Gilbertian invasion plot"". Sullivan's score is majestic, and a sequence of songs in Act II, sometimes known as the ""string of pearls"", is particularly well loved. Sullivan used chromatic and scalar passages and key modulations throughout the score, and commenters have called the Act II quartet ""The World Is But a Broken Toy"" one of Sullivan's ""most beautiful, plaintive melodies."" It has also been called ""Gounodesque"". Although Gilbert's libretto contains many funny lines, the iambic pentameter and three-act structure tend to make ""Ida"" more difficult to stage effectively than some of the other Savoy Operas."
"Sausages"" (2011). In ""Meet Mr Mulliner"" by P. G. Wodehouse, the title hero sings a fragment from Dr Daly's ballad and characterises his nephew as ""the sort of young curate who seems to have been so common in the 'eighties, or whenever it was that Gilbert wrote The Sorcerer."" It has also been referenced in popular TV series, such as in the ""Family Guy"" episode ""Patriot Games"", where characters sing the song ""If you'll marry me"" from Act II. The Sorcerer The Sorcerer is a two-act comic opera, with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by Arthur Sullivan."
"The Tempest (Sullivan) The Tempest incidental music, Op. 1, is a set of movements for Shakespeare's play composed by Arthur Sullivan in 1861 and expanded in 1862. This was Sullivan's first major composition, and its success quickly brought him to the attention of the musical establishment in England. Sullivan wrote his incidental music to Shakespeare's play as his graduation piece while a conservatory student at Leipzig. Felix Mendelssohn was much admired by the tutors at the Leipzig Conservatory, and Sullivan's music, following the pattern of Mendelssohn's famous score for ""A Midsummer Night's Dream"", was chosen for inclusion in the Conservatory’s"
"life, in contrast to the foolishness of the surrounding scenes. Like both of the tenor's arias in ""Trial by Jury"", tenor arias in later Savoy operas were set in 6/8 time so frequently that Anna Russell, in her 1953 parody, ""How to Write Your Own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera"", exclaimed, ""the tenor ... according to tradition, ""must"" sing an aria in 6/8 time, usually accompanying himself on a stringed instrument"". In ""Trial by Jury"" hypocrisy is revealed as the characters' motivations are held up to satire, and Gilbert mocks the underlying absurdity of the judicial procedures. As Gilbert scholar Andrew"
"part in the recovery of the Prince. Handel's influence is heard throughout the piece, including in the fugues, and Sullivan uses key selection to emphasize sacred and secular sections of the piece. Soprano solo or choral sections alternate in a broad dynamic range to illustrate the text. The piece, in keeping with the spirit of the occasion, is often upbeat, even exuberant in places. While Sullivan was writing the Festival Te Deum, his first opera with W. S. Gilbert, ""Thespis"", was still being performed. Sullivan was also busy composing ""The Light of the World"" (an oratorio for the Birmingham festival),"
"Vancourt and the British duo Kit and The Widow. British medical satirists Amateur Transplants acknowledge the debt they owe to Lehrer on the back of their first album, ""Fitness to Practice"". Their songs ""The Menstrual Rag"" and ""The Drugs Song"" are to the tunes of Lehrer's ""The Vatican Rag"" and ""The Elements"" (the tune of the ""Major-General's Song"" from ""The Pirates of Penzance"" by Gilbert and Sullivan) respectively. Their second album, ""Unfit to Practise"", opens with an update of Lehrer's ""The Masochism Tango"" called ""Masochism Tango 2008"". In 1967, Swedish actor Lars Ekborg, outside Sweden most known for his part"
"Gilbert made every effort to accommodate his collaborator, even writing alternative lyrics to some songs. Sullivan had trouble setting one lyric in particular, ""I have a song to sing-O!"", with its increasing length in each stanza. He asked Gilbert if he had anything in mind when writing it. Gilbert hummed a few lines from a sea shanty, and Sullivan knew what to do. The first act was rather long and contained an unusual number of sentimental pieces. As opening night approached, Gilbert became increasingly apprehensive. Would the audience accept this serious, sentimental tone from one of the duo's ""comic"" operas?"
"and Kate Jackson are a happy G&S-loving couple until he leaves her for another man (Harry Hamlin). Gilbert and Sullivan, and songs from the operas, have been included in numerous TV series, including ""The Simpsons"" in several episodes, including ""Cape Feare"", ""Deep Space Homer"", and ""Bart's Inner Child""; numerous ""Frasier"" episodes; ""Kavanagh QC"", in the episode ""Briefs Trooping Gaily"", ""Angel"" in the fifth season episode ""Conviction"", where Charles Gunn becomes a good lawyer, and learns a lot of G&S, because it's ""great for elocution""; numerous references in Animaniacs; the episode ""The Cold Open"" (1x02) of ""Studio 60 on the Sunset"
"cantata. He informs Sullivan that, if he would get around to finishing ""The Golden Legend"", Queen Victoria will attend the premiere. Likewise, when Gilbert calls on Sullivan, he sees him rehearsing ""The Golden Legend"", as Bennett stands watch. When Bennett dozes off, Sullivan turns back to ""The Mikado"". After both works debut, Sullivan is knighted. The Queen inquires if he will write a grand opera. Just before the premiere of their next opera, ""Ruddigore"", Sullivan asks Gilbert to write the libretto for his first grand opera. Gilbert declines, stating that in such a work the words play second fiddle to"
"mother died rather suddenly. By the end of July 1882, Gilbert had supplied Sullivan with lyrics to several of the songs, and Sullivan began work setting them to music. Over the next two months, Sullivan met Gilbert to discuss the libretto as more lyrics were completed. Music rehearsals began in September, and staging began in October, scheduled around performances of Gilbert and Sullivan's previous opera, ""Patience"", which had transferred to the Savoy Theatre a year earlier. Sullivan was still composing more numbers for the opera until 20 October, with a few modifications continuing into early November. Uncharacteristically, Sullivan composed the"
"the Great Quack"". This was not intended to be sung at great speed and is thus more of a precursor of, for example, ""When I, good friends, was called to the bar"" (""Trial by Jury"") or ""As some day it may happen"" (""The Mikado""), than are the examples of the ""rapid-fire"" patter above. Most of the Gilbert and Sullivan patter songs are solos for the principal comedian in the cast and were originally performed by George Grossmith. Anna Russell's ""How to write your own Gilbert and Sullivan Opera"" contains an affectionate parody of a Gilbert and Sullivan patter song. Apart"
"the bomb). ""Tom Foolery"" contained 27 songs and led to more than 200 productions, including an Off-Broadway production at the Village Gate, which ran for 120 performances in 1981. In conjunction with the ""Tom Foolery"" premiere in 1980 at the Criterion Theatre in London, Lehrer made a rare TV appearance on BBC's ""Parkinson"" show, where he sang ""I Got It from Agnes"". In 1993, Lehrer wrote ""That's Mathematics"" for the closing credits to a Mathematical Sciences Research Institute video celebrating the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. On June 7 and 8, 1998, Lehrer performed in public for the first time"
"Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet! Pirates of Penzance – The Ballet! is a comic ballet adapted from Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy Opera ""The Pirates of Penzance"". The plot is the same as in the opera, and the music is arrangements of Arthur Sullivan's original music for the opera. After the music begins, an usher leads four people (who turn out to be opera singers) on stage as they loudly discuss mundane matters. As the audience begins showing its irritation, the singers are seated as an onstage audience. During the ballet, they sing part of the original score of ""Pirates"","
"the song ""Tchaikovsky and Other Russians"", written by Ira Gershwin, which listed fifty Russian composers in a similar manner. ""The Elements"" differs from the ""Major-General's Song"" in that: ""The Elements"" has been featured in popular culture many times. In the episode ""Ex-File"" of ""NCIS"", Timothy McGee and Abby Sciuto hum the song, which forms a key clue in their case. In ""The Big Bang Theory"" episode ""The Pants Alternative"", a drunk Sheldon Cooper starts to sing the song during his acceptance of an award from his university. In the 2006 episode of ""Gilmore Girls"" called ""The Real Paul Anka"", Luke"
"Sullivan opera, ""Thespis"", in which a company of actors gain political power. Gilbert read a sketch of the plot to Sullivan on 8 August 1895, and Sullivan wrote on 11 August to say that he would be pleased to write the music, calling Gilbert's plot sketch ""as clear and bright as possible"". The theme of Ernest (and then Rudolph) being legally dead while still physically alive was used in earlier works by Gilbert and, separately by Sullivan, for example ""Tom Cobb"" (1875) and ""Cox and Box"" (1867). Gilbert sold the libretto of the new piece to Carte and Sullivan for"
"style of his later work, including the famous series of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. Gilbert described the play as a ""musical fairytale"". Italian-born Alberto Randegger was better known as a conductor and professor of singing than as a composer, although he composed several full-length works and numerous vocal pieces in England in the 1860s and 1870s. He is also remembered for his important 1879 textbook entitled ""Singing"". His music for ""Creatures of Impulse"" was criticised as ""extremely undramatic"", though others found it ""pretty"". Much of it was cut from revivals of the piece. Gilbert first published ""Creatures of Impulse"" as"
"Works to Music Theater Works. In its early years, the company staged all twelve of the full-length extant Gilbert and Sullivan operas, including an Elizabethan concept ""Mikado"" (1986) and an Edward Gorey/Tim Burton-inspired ""Ruddigore"" (1996), as well as the less frequently produced ""Utopia Limited"" (1984) and ""The Grand Duke"" (1992). The company has produced a number of Chicago premieres, including Emmerich Kálmán's ""The Duchess of Chicago"" (1998), Jerome Moross' ""The Golden Apple"" (1995), and Karl Millöcker's ""The Beggar Student"", as well as revivals such as Oscar Straus' ""The Chocolate Soldier"" (1987) and ""A Waltz Dream"" (1992) (both with translations by"
"for coloratura, ""Poor wand'ring one"", which is generally thought to burlesque Gounod's waltz-songs, though the music critic of ""The Times"" called it ""mock-Donizetti"". In a scene in Act II, Mabel addresses the police, who chant their response in the manner of an Anglican church service. Sullivan even managed to parody two composers at once. The critic Rodney Milnes describes the Major-General's Act II song, ""Sighing softly to the river"", ""as plainly inspired by – and indeed worthy of – Sullivan's hero Schubert"", and Amanda Holden speaks of the song's ""Schubertian water-rippling accompaniment"", but adds that it simultaneously spoofs Verdi's ""Il"
"and Sullivan operas are mentioned in several episodes, especially by Deputy Communications Director, Sam Seaborn, who was recording secretary of his school's Gilbert and Sullivan society. In ""Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip"", a poster from ""Pirates"" hangs on Matt Albie's office wall. Both TV series were created by Aaron Sorkin. In the pilot episode of the 2008 CBS series ""Flashpoint"", a police officer and his partner sing the policeman's song. In an ""Assy McGee"" episode entitled ""Pegfinger"", Detective Sanchez's wife is a member of a community theatre that performs the opera. In a 1986 episode of the animated television"
"His Excellency (opera) His Excellency is a two-act comic opera with a libretto by W. S. Gilbert and music by F. Osmond Carr. The piece concerns a practical-joking governor whose pranks threaten to make everyone miserable, until the Prince Regent kindly foils the governor's plans. Towards the end of the Gilbert and Sullivan partnership, Arthur Sullivan declined to write the music for this piece after Gilbert insisted on casting his protege, Nancy McIntosh, in the lead role; Sullivan and producer Richard D'Oyly Carte, proprietor of the Savoy Theatre, did not feel that McIntosh was adequate. The opera premiered instead under"